Yycbride2016 Grand Sirenis Planning Thread February 2016

[yycbride2016]

Well I finally couldn’t wait any longer to start my planning thread even though I’m still 9 months out from our wedding J I’ve seen so many great ideas on this forum and everyone is so helpful giving ideas.

 

How we met:

My FI and I met at university. In our degree of New Media there aren’t exactly a lot of… “normal” guys. It’s mostly the type that live in their mothers basements playing video games and are too scared to talk to girls haha. (No offence if that’s your type… I just prefer a guy who…isn’t that). Well anyways Kyle and one of his best friends lived together and were in every single class together which also happened to be almost all the same classes as me. We talked a bit but I wouldn’t even go as far as saying we were friends after first year of University. Once we got to second year we met properly at a Halloween party where well.. Kyle thought it would be fun to dress up as an office ninja and attack me (batgirl). Its amazing I’m marrying this guy haha. We became really good friends that year and once third year hit and we were back at classes in the fall we decided to make it official and start dating J

 

The Proposal:

The proposal all fell into my FI’s lap as I basically did all the hard work for him without even know it it

I should start with the fact that I was on pinterest and noticed a couple rings I liked and thought I’d test the waters and show Kyle. He said “cool, send me a picture of them”. I was flabbergasted as marriage had been a taboo topic with him up until that point. Needless to say I took full advantage of the situation and sent him about 10 different rings I liked. I think I overwhelmed him and he said, tell you what, you have one day at the mall and one day only to show me as many rings as you like, and after that you aren’t allowed to even mention rings to me. I accepted the challenge and showed him lots of rings. Amazingly he was more of a ring shopper than I was. He made me go to all the stores a second time when I thought I was done haha.

 

Ansyways, both Kyle and I are outdoorsy/ active people. We normally book a snowshoeing weekend in the mountains in the winter and go hiking lots in the summer. Last summer we didn’t seem to have as much time to go hiking so we decided one night over dinner that we would book a weekend getaway to the mountains to go hiking. (Apparently this worked out perfectly to his plans). I found a great deal for a suite in Canmore, Alberta and I booked it. Our friends had recently been on a hike and told us about it and so we knew where we were going to go hiking. (this was probably all about a month before we were actually going).

 

So then, my parents live in Europe and told me that they were going to come visit at the end of September (unexpectedly). Again, this worked out perfectly for Kyle. He said he was going to send my dad a video asking for my hand in marriage and now he was going to be able to do this in person! Perfect…except I almost cancelled our trip knowing my parents would be visiting and I’d want to spend time with them. Luckily they convinced me to go anyways haha.

 

So our October hiking trip arrived and I packed us hot soup (since it was the fall) for our lunch at the top of the mountains, really only packed hiking clothes and one cute top for dinner that night. Off we went. We hiked up to the top, taking pictures along the way and just having a great hike. We were eating our soup and then I must have put my water bottle lid on so tight I was really struggling to open it when kyle said need help? And I was stubborn and said no way I can do it, and looked up and he was down on one knee with a ring in hand. I was absolutely shocked and I have no idea how I didn’t see it coming. Me being so nervous and excited in the moment I said “thank you” to him when he said “will you marry me”. (Being that I grew up in Europe, Kyle always jokes that there are translation issues between us and he thinks I didn’t understand haha but I did!) He had champagne ready on the mountain for us and then told me that once we got down the mountain back to the hotel we were going for a couples massage and then to Banff for dinner J It was so amazing (except I didn’t really have clothes for the occasion haha).

 

We decided to not go hiking the next day so that we could get back to the city early to tell our families and friends the amazing news! Everyone seemed to expect it except for me. I wasn’t expecting it till the winter when we would go on our snowshoeing trip haha. It was an amazing weekend to say the least.

The Travel Agent:

Now for the tricky planning…. We knew instantly that we wanted to do a destination wedding since my sister had done that 3 years prior and it was amazing! I also didn’t want to worry about any family drama or worry about feeding 100 people.

So we contacted a couple travel agents and started getting some quotes. Everything was coming back way too much money unfortunately. We decided to work with one specific travel agent who at the time seemed on the ball and knew what she was doing. We finally agreed upon a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. The resort was called Peublo Bonito Pacifica. Things started to get crazy and the resort wouldn’t answer my emails or book our wedding and when they did every little tiny thing was a big extra cost. I had asked my travel agent if booking the flights before confirming a date with the hotel was risky and she said no that’s fine and booked us. Needless to say the travel agent was wrong and became very useless very fast. She would have “family emergencies” every time I needed to get ahold of her or say she was going to call me back and never call me back. She was very rude to me and I was so upset as all this meant we had lost $400! I said enough is enough I’m looking elsewhere and I’m done with you. (FYI do not work with Expedia Cruise Ship Centers – they are so rude and unprofessional, even her manager was incredibly rude to me).

 

So I had gone to the bridal expos/fairs in Calgary and met a few destination wedding travel agents during my whole fiasco and so I decided to call them all and see what their processes were and get more quotes again (this was probably our 4^th or 5^th round of quotes). I found one travel agent who answered all my questions so fast and got me quotes even faster! She was great! I decided to book with her and put my mind at rest! She is with Tier One Travel and I’d recommend her to any Calgary brides.

 

 

The resort:

We decided to go with the Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico! The resort looks amazing and fun with so much to do and see. Not going to lie, we only got a quote for this resort because my Fiancé found @@calgarybride2015 's review and we were sold! I think my favorite part is that we can book a private location for the wedding and the reception. My sister’s wedding was on the beach and she had a fat man in speedo’s watching her wedding and getting in the photos. I was not keen on having this.

 

We are going to do the free wedding (at this point I just need one more double room booked for 7 days and we will get this package). We are going to upgrade to the private beach and palapa and then pick and choose all of our extras (flowers, ribbons, music, food, etc.). This option seemed like the best bang for our buck!

 

Save the date:

I’m a graphic designer and a few years ago I used to make wedding invitations for a living. This was probably the part of our wedding I’ve been most excited for! My favorite color is a teal color (teal, turquoise, aqua), so I knew what my color scheme would be (since my FI hated the idea of pink). I loved the idea of going with a beach theme since it will be on the beach after all. I ended up mainly going with a starfish theme! Super cute!

 

My original idea for the save the dates was literally to put the date down and the resort name. But my TA informed me I only had 3 months to get as many guests as I could signed up for our group rate. Plan: changed. I decided to turn my 1 luggage tag save the dates into 2 luggage tags. I designed them up. Printed them off at staples (and they also did a decent job cutting them). Tied them with ribbon, addressed all our envelopes and sent them off. Oh! Almost forgot, I also made cute little starfish return address labels.

 

I think that’s it for today. Apparently this planning thread business takes a lot of work haha. I will update soon on engagement photos, bridesmaids dresses, booking process, wedding invitations, wedding website, etc.

Edited May 29, 2015 by yycbride2016

[krystalball]

Yay, another planning thread! Love your engagement story, your beautiful ring, and the cute pick with your puppy. Your FI should get lots of props for the romantic proposal!

 

So sorry you had to go through so much grief and lose out on $400 with your first TA, but glad things are working out well with the new one! 

 

Your STDs look so professional, so I'm sure everything else you create will be just as amazing (and put everything I might make to shame, lol). I'm looking forward to hearing more of your planning process, especially since you're getting married at the same awesome resort and we seem to have the same taste in colours 

[TinkerSofi]

Another Calgary bride yay!! Your story is so cute. I also love your save the dates

 

PS: we're also working with a Tier One travel and she's been amazing . She had actually suggested the Grand Sirenis, but we ended up choosing Azul Fives because it was closer to Playa del Carmen. Grand Sirenis does look like a beautiful resort though and I've only heard good things about it. 

Edited May 30, 2015 by TinkerSofi

[Wafflesmom]

Oh yay, I love planning threads. I love your story and your ring, absolutely gorgeous. You did a great job with your save the dates!

[acw271011]

Congrats on your engagement! Your ring is gorgeous! And what a cute story!

 

You're in good company with your resort for sure. @@calgarybride2015 definitely loved it!

[vancouverpetunia]

Your ring is so pretty (very similar to one of my choices, although not what I ended up with). And the STDs look great. Love the "thank you" part of your engagement story. We joke about that all the time as well

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ashhtayy]

Love your thread so far. I look forward to following it and seeing all the great things you do.

 

We have similar stories in that I randomly sent him a picture of the ring I wanted, randomly went shopping one time to see if that was in fact the style of ring I wanted, proposal was such a surprise (to only me - the entire world seemed to know) and finally, our first few travel agents ended up being a bust.

 

Good luck and happy planning

[snswedding2016]

@@yycbride2016 love your planning thread so far!! You are off to a great start and hopefully the hardest part is over (finding the right TA). Your proposal is so romantic - love that it was at the top of a mountain! Amazing!!

[yycbride2016]

@@krystalball

Thanks! The proposal was perfect! So happy with how he did it. And yeah i'm hoping the worst is over now that the hotel is booked, venue is booked, etc. Thanks for the compliment on my Save the dates! I thought they were cute. I"m super excited to show you guys the invitations. I'm going to go get them printed this weekend!!! Super exciting! 

 

@@TinkerSofi

We looked at the Azul fives as well. I thought it looked like the dreams/ secrets quality which is what we really wanted. Unfortunately not a lot of our friends are working the best paying jobs yet so not many people could afford the quotes we were getting. I just wish the canadian dollar had been stronger when getting quotes  

 

@@ashhtayy

On know! I'm sorry you had to have such a frustrating experience as me with TA's. I don't think i'd ever been so stressed before. The prices kept going up and up every time we would get more quotes as time was progressing. It was so frustrating. The worst is still how rude the TA was to me. My fiance had to contact her to tell her that we were done working with her because I was just so frustrated and upset. 

 

@@snswedding2016

Thanks! I have more things already done but I'll post it later! I'm going to go get my invitations printed today and go look at a few more bridesmaids dresses with my sister (MOH) this afternoon. Only a few more weeks till I get to go dress shopping!!! So excited and nervous for that. I'm the most indecisive person. Hopefully i'll find something amazing at a great price. 

[TinkerSofi]

@@yycbride2016 absolutely! That's kind of what happened with us too. We got an extremely good quote considering it was Azul Fives and we booked. The trips went up about $200-300 afterwards when the dollar sort of plummeted. I guess it was a good thing that we booked when we did, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to either. I think the prices have gone down now again. I'm trying to see if they'll drop some more before we can claim the difference